Last week I announced the opening of The Davis LAB and launch of ArtBabble. If you stopped by on Saturday to check out the LAB and chat with IMA staff, thank you so much. It was a good turn out. Our goal is to plan more events in the next year where we get to meet those in the local community interested in what we’re doing with the blog, technology and more. A couple of readers expressed some interest in seeing some photos of the LAB. We’re also setting up some times for other museums to visit, to learn more about the LAB, see the installation, and more or less, talk shop.

Brad testing out ArtBabble

The back half of the space is set up similar to a living room, using furniture from our Design Center. This area is dedicated to using ArtBabble. Visitors in this secton can act as a Davis LAB user and rate videos, leave comments, or invite friends. ArtBabble is still in ‘invitation only’ stage, so this is a good way to get some invites out there. Although, leave me a comment and I’ll make it rain ArtBabble invites for you.

Stand still!

The kiosks have operated very well considering the restrictions we’ve placed on these machines. All of the computers in the LAB are running on kiosk software. I know what I would have done to a unrestricted computer as a youngster (if they had computers back then), so the kiosk software restricts access to questionable online content, disables certain keyboard actions, turns the computers on/off and more. I’m sure someone will hack the kiosk software though. Can’t wait.

Robbie setting up the computers

The entire LAB was set up to run automatically. Lighting, computers and the projector all power automatically. Some of us check up on the LAB from time to time, but it was designed to run by itself, with minimal impact on museum staff. In the past, the hurdle with technology in the galleries was the human time involved in maintenance and trouble shooting. This plan initiated by our IT and Design staff should alleviate that problem. The space has been open a week. So far, so good.

As always, I would love to hear your feedback on this post – ArtBabble, The Davis LAB, the design (which I love), kiosk software, Noelle’s great Wednesday post and more.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under New Media, Technology.
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